Gre Issue Practice 2

A true university encompasses far more than the narrow specialized study of a single discipline. Only through exploring the broad spectrum of liberal arts courses can the students become truly learned.


Usually universities aim at educating young adults and equip them with the knowledge so that they can take their place in society and contribute. While some people take the view that universities are meant for making people job-ready and they should only provide enough specialization in a single field of study. Others maintain that university education should comprise of a whole variety of courses including liberal arts to make students well rounded individual.


Education is not just a means of imparting well-formed concepts and tested ideas; but is also a mechanism of enabling a person to think and create new ideas. If it were not so, our society will not progress, and man-kind will come to a stand-still. Will we then be any different from a machine which runs according to a well-defined computer program?  Also, if the scope of education is narrowed, it will only lead to narrow-minded individuals. For instance, a computer science graduate with only computer science education will be able to write great algorithms, but will fail to use them to solve the mystery of human genomes. Similarly, he will not be able to participate in the decisions made for his country, county or community.


Although, it is easy to teach well-defined concepts, there is no clear mechanism of teaching people to innovate and create. It has always been thought of as something intrinsic to an individual. Infact, human-beings are naturally inquisitive creatures known to invent and create contraptions to progress and make their life comfortable. Early man did not need a university education to discover fire or invent the concept of wheel. Thus, some might say, that a university does not need to teach students on how to think. But, modern studies have shown, that engaging in creative arts such as dance, music and arts can stimulate right portions of the brain. This portion of the brain is associated with thinking and creativity. As brain is like a muscle, more you use it, better it becomes. Thus, engaging in creative arts during college can make an individual more creative. Also, in today's environment, use of right-side of the brain is more required since most of the left-brained jobs are going to be automated through computers. Thus, creativity is an essential part of making people job-ready also.


Is creativity the only reason why colleges should teach liberal arts courses. Liberal arts also give a perspective towards things. It lends an ability to appreciate nature, beauty, understand and recognise past geniuses, and helps in relieving tensions in an individual. Thus, they enable the students to become truly learned. At this point, one might argue, that liberal arts should be taught during school and not universities. Universities are aimed at specialization while schools aim to provide a well-rounded education. But does the education ever stop? Shouldn't the good trend started at school continue through-out the career of an individual.


Also, many schools do not give enough emphasis on liberal arts. Often, various schools focus too much on academics not giving enough chance towards doing all round development of an individual. Also, during school, the exposure towards society is limited with most of the children coming from a similar background and locality. A university, on the other hand, consists of people from diverse backgrounds and many nationalities. An eclectic group of people can come together during these years to form great groups. These groups then go on the create various rock-bands, great companies such as Apple, sports teams for various games and visionaries, artists and great thinkers.


Thus, having recognised the need for an overall education, universities should focus on being more open towards non-standard courses. The importance of liberal arts lies in their ability to stimulate creativity, collaboration and understanding the appreciating all that is beautiful in this world. Thus, I will sum up with this simple quote - "The difference between educated and uneducated lie in their ability to recognise and appreciate beauty".